


The Princess's Noble Knight

by inquisitorsmabari



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Gift Giving, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 07:56:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitorsmabari/pseuds/inquisitorsmabari
Summary: Elara Cousland buys a gift for Alistair during their stay in Denerim, but can't help but buy one for herself too.





	The Princess's Noble Knight

**Author's Note:**

> This is very fluffy and silly, and came from a poll I ran on my twitter to determine which pairing to write for a Valentine's Fic. I wanted to do gift giving so I went with some pre-relationship (i.e. trying to get that approval up) fluffiness. I hope you all enjoy!

Elara’s closed fist tapped gently against the flimsy, wooden door which all but gave way beneath her touch, revealing just the faintest slither of the room that lay within. But she hung back nonetheless, waiting patiently with her hand hovering just above the old wood until Alistair called her inside, and she answered with the gentle tip toe of her feet against the creaking floorboards of his room.

“Hey, Elara!” Alistair called to her with a smile as she closed the door behind her with great care taken to keep her right hand hidden behind her back. “I hope you haven’t come to gloat about beating me in that Wicked Grace game last night.”

“No, I haven’t,” She assured him as she turned to face him once again with her left hand grasping behind her back to claw at the package that was clutched in the fingers of her right hand. “I’m not really a gloating type.”

“No, you’re far too nice for that,” He said as his eyes travelled to the floor beneath his feet, which he kicked with the toe of his boot as a glum expression passed over his face. “Stupid Leliana with that stupid smug smirk.”

“Well, I felt bad emptying you of all your coin so I thought I’d bring you something to make up for it,” She offered as she shuffled closer with her grip on the package tightening as she saw his gaze travel to the tops of her arms. 

“What is it?” He asked her with such excitement that it took her will to stop herself from breaking into childish grin.

“It’s a present,” She said with a shrug as her gaze fell to the boot covered toe that traced the lines on the old floorboard beneath her feet. “I got it from the market this morning.”

She pulled what felt like a squishy lump of cloth out of the package and, after giving it one final scan with a flash of her brown eyes, she handed it over, passing it into his open palm with a slight brush of her travel worn fingers against his rough skin. She watched as his eyes traveled down to the lump she had placed in his hand, a lump that formed the rough shape of a small man decked in a set of murky grey armour with a cloth helmet covering the slightly wobbly, round head. It was silly looking, made by a young woman who she had seen at the market everyday sat behind a towering pile of cloth with her eyes fixed on her tiny, fabric creations. Elara had not been best pleased at the way some of their money had been earnt since they had come to Denerim, and this made up for that somewhat. Or, at least, she hoped.

“Wow! This is for me?” He gasped with his eyes wide as he tore his gaze away from the present and looked up at her with an excited grin. “Is he a little knight? Or a Grey Warden?”

“He can be whatever you want him to be,” She said with a laugh as she stared down at the tiny cloth doll that looked so small in Alistair’s large hands. 

“He’s so cute! I love him, thank you!” He cried as he sat himself back down on the bed with the doll clutched so tightly that if he were a real knight, he would be struggling to breathe. “What did you get for yourself, then?”

“Oh...nothing much,” She said with her words stifled by an awkward, breathy laugh. “Just something small.”

“Is that what you’re hiding behind your back?” She looked up at him as he asked his question with a curious air, his beady eyes watching her carefully as she slowly pulled out the package she had been hiding. It was a package in a similar shape to the one she had passed over to Alistair, lumpy, soft, and just a little bit squishy. So it didn’t seem to surprise Alistair when a small head poked out from beneath the cloth wrapping. “You got one for yourself, didn’t you?”

“I thought they were cute!” She cried as she fought to compete against the laughter that had erupted from his mouth. “And she’s tried very hard to make and sell these.”

“I didn’t have you down as someone who plays with _dolls,_ ” Alistair continued to cackle maniacally as she felt her cheeks redden beneath his gaze. “Not to be rude but, you know, I would have thought you would have spent much more time outside chasing all the other children and pretending you were a warrior queen.”

“A warrior queen?” Now it was her turn to laugh as she pulled the small doll out from the packaging and discarded the cloth on the bed next to Alistair. “No, I was always on some sort of adventure, normally to somewhere exciting like Antiva or Nevarra.” She threw her dark brown hair behind her shoulder as her laughter died somewhat, while memories began to come forth from the darker corners of her mind. “But my parents used to buy me dolls nonetheless. I used to scorn them at the time but now…” Her gaze turned back to the doll in her hand, the one with the sweet face and the soft pink dress that covered the dolls squishy cloth body. “Well, I just saw her and I thought she was cute, I guess.”

“Well now we will have to play with them together,” Alistair declared as he shuffled backwards onto the rickety bed that the inn had provided him, patting the space he had made with an eager hand as he gestured for her to sit in front of him. “Mine can be the noble knight and yours can be the...the princess he must save from some wicked fiend!”

“Alistair, I hope this isn’t some kind of fantasy of yours…” She said with a roll of her eyes as she planted herself down on the bed in front of him with her doll clutched tightly in her hand. Now she was that much closer to him, the light in his eyes was even more evident, and the knowledge that it was her gift that had brought that light to his eyes was enough to make her smile with glee.

“Of course not!” His cry of indignation only made her laugh out loud but, luckily for her, he only laughed with her. “Anyway, let’s make a castle for your princess.”

“And how do we do that?” She asked, casting her eyes around the bare room that belonged to Alistair for just this one night. It was a fairly uninspiring room, with just the one bed that was, at the very least, comfier than anything that she had slept on since joining the Grey Wardens. But it did the job, and it was nice to have something more substantial than a thing piece of canvas to protect them from the elements.

“With our imaginations!” He told her with a gleeful look in his eye. “We can scrunch up some of my clothes from today and make them into a wall, and the we can grab the pillow and…”

Alistair continued on for some time, constructing fortifications and turrets with piles of discarded clothes and the old, mangey pillow case he had peeled off of the worn, feather down pillow. And when he asked for help in his ventures, she delighted in being able to offer her services, following his instructions with a smile on her face. Until, before their eyes, there was a pile of clothes that Alistair called a castle. And on top of it, her little princess doll sat, looking about as happy as Elara herself felt.

It had been a long time since she had felt this happy, this carefree, just as it had been a long time since she played with dolls. But whatever it was that had made her want to pick up those dolls from the market, well, Maker was she glad she did. Because they sat there, and they played, until the sun had long set and the candles burnt down into their holders, leaving the room to fall into an almost darkness. Time passed, but she paid it no heed. Because she was having fun, and so was he, and his delighted laugh was all she needed to bring a smile to her face and a warmth to her heart that no one else could quite manage to do.

But eventually, time got the better of her, and she fell slowly into a peaceful, deep sleep. So peaceful, in fact, that she didn’t even realise that she had until the morning came, and the noises of Denerim swelled and poured in through the opened window to bring her into the waking world.

And so she woke, her eyes opening ever so slightly to see that she had fallen asleep in her clothes, in a room in the inn they had commandeered for the night. Except it wasn’t her room. Because on the other side of the bed, but not too far away, Alistair was asleep with the doll she had bought him clutched to his chest, his hair all askew as his face sunk rather ungracefully into the pillow beneath him. 

And wrapped around her body was a blanket she did not recognise, which was tucked round her so tightly that she struggled to break free. But as she did, she noticed that it held just the faintest smell of him, and she couldn’t help but bring it closer to her once again, clutched in her arms as she leant into the soft fabric with a sigh.


End file.
